The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has released stunning image of supermassive black hole located at the heart of the Andromeda galaxy. This photo was taken by the Spitzer Space Telescope, which was the last mission in NASA’s Great Observatories Program, launched on August 25, 2003.
According to NASA, Spitzer was the first telescope to detect light from an exoplanet, which is a planet beyond our solar system. It employs a highly sensitive infrared telescope to observe asteroids, comets, planets, and distant galaxies.
Coming back to the image shared by NASA, it stated that the image shared was a compilation of 11,000 snapshots from the retired Spitzer telescope.
In a post shared on Instagram, NASA describes, “As supermassive black holes “eat,” material heats up just before it falls in, creating incredible light shows — sometimes brighter than an entire galaxy full of stars. But the black hole at the center of Andromeda (one of our nearest galactic neighbors) is a “quiet” eater, meaning that the little light it emits does not vary significantly in brightness. This suggests that it is consuming a small but steady flow of material, rather than large clumps. ”
Users commented on NASA’s image of the Andromeda galaxy with a mix of curiosity and humor. One questioned whether the image was real or AI-generated, another joked about whether eating the galaxy would be a “light” snack.
One user wrote, “Is this real image or AI created??”
Some other added, “If I were to eat the Andromeda galaxy, would it be considered a “light” snack”
“This gives me peace,” another user said.
“That’s so beautiful,” another user remarked.
Meanwhile, on Friday, NASA reassigned a new set of astronauts for its SpaceX Crew-9 mission, ahead of its launch in September 2024. Astronaut Nick Hague and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov were appointed as the commander and mission specialist for SpaceX Dragon spacecraft respectively, which is scheduled to take off on September 24.
Previously announced NASA astronauts Zena Cardman and Stephanie Wilson have been reassigned to future missions, said the space administration in its latest update. The other astronauts, Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams, who left for space on the Starliner spacecraft in June, will return to Earth with Hague and Gorbunov in February 2025.